American Society of Concrete Contractors Announces Safety Award Recipients

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Concrete contractors with exemplary safety records were recently recognized by the American Society of Concrete Contractors at the association's annual conference in Grand Rapids, Mich.

W. Burr Bennett Awards for Safety Excellence were given to specialty contractor T.B. Penick & Sons, San Diego, Calif., and general contractor, S.B. Ballard Construction Company, Virginia Beach, Va. These awards are presented in partnership with CNA, Chicago, to contractors that place the highest priority on safety. Entries were judged on three years of safety performance indicators, values and trends; a self-assessment checklist of company safety practices and detailed descriptions of safety plans and culture.

Additional awards based on the incident rate for 2010 were presented to general and specialty contractors in four categories. The incident rate is the number of lost workday cases from the OSHA 300 log, times 200,000, divided by the number of work hours in a calendar year.

General contractors receiving the Outstanding Safety Achievement Award for the lowest incident rate were S.B. Ballard Construction Co., Virginia Beach, Va. (over 250,000 work hours); California Engineering Contractors, Pleasanton, Calif. (100,000 — 250,000 work hours); and Cooper River Contracting, Charleston, S.C. (under 100,000 work hours.)

Specialty contractors receiving the Outstanding Safety Achievement Award were Precision Concrete Construction, Alpharetta, Ga. (over 250,000 work hours); L. Keeley Construction, Sauget, Ill. (100,000 — 250,000 work hours) and Garland Concrete, Dallas, Texas (under 100,000 work hours).

Forty-three contractors received awards for zero lost time due to accidents and 31 contractors were recognized for having lowered their incident rate from the previous year. Fifty-six contractors received certificates for achieving an incident rate below the national average.

The ASCC Safety & Risk Management Council educates contractors on all aspects of safety relating to concrete contracting and insurance matters. The council also provides oversight on safety publications and events.

The ASCC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the capabilities of those who build with concrete, and to providing a unified voice in the construction industry. Members include concrete contracting firms, manufacturers, suppliers and others interested in the concrete industry such as architects, specifiers and distributors. There are approximately 460 member companies in the United States and 11 foreign countries.

For more information, visit www.ascconline.org or call the ASCC office at 866-788-2722.